06.16.05

Chip wise, productivity foolish

Posted in General at 9 pm

A friend recently wrote, “To get my toes wet I’m thinking about buying a mini first. Waste of money?”

Software wise, the stuff that runs today will run tomorrow. The stuff tomorrow will still support the chips of today and Apple will continue using the PowerPC chips for the next two years at least.

So if we conservatively estimate that the software that will start not supporting the PowerPC chips will not appear for two years after that, there are 4 years before there is even the start of some software that won’t run on the Mini. Then another couple of years before the most common apps drop support, so we’re up to 6 years. I regularly run two year old software (4 years even), and Amy’s still running Jaguar (2002, 3 years old) with no problem.

So if you’re worried that your $700 computer won’t run new software after 6 to 8 years, then by all means, wait. But if you think that by 2012 you might be in the market for a new machine, the Mini should last you just fine. 🙂

In fact, I think the Mac Mini will be the one machine that continues to sell in volume through the transition and will be the only big mover for Apple outside of the iPod for the next 18 months.

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